The monthly price that needs a year up front October 2026
A price page says $12 a month. At the checkout you pay $144. We counted how often that happens, and which well-known tools do it.
Checked by hand on 2 October 2026, on each company’s own pages.
The short answer
If you read nothing else, read this.
- 123 of 732 tools (17%) that show a price per month only give that price if you pay for 12 months at once.
- Grammarly is a clear example: €12 a month billed yearly, which is €144 on the day you buy. Paid month by month, the same plan is €30 a month.
- The clue is always near the price: billed annually, billed yearly, per month, paid yearly, or a small asterisk.
- On every tool page here, a price that needs a year says billed yearly right under it.
How the trap works
Most price pages have a switch: Monthly or Yearly. It often starts on Yearly, because the yearly price per month is the lower number. The page then shows that lower number in big type, with "billed annually" in small type under it.
Nothing on the page is false. But "$12 per month" and "$144 today" are not the same offer, and a reader who scans for the number sees only the first one.
Grammarly, worked through
Their plans page says, word for word: "€12 EUR / member / month, billed annually €30 when billed monthly".
- Pay for the year: €144 today, then nothing for 12 months.
- Pay month by month: €30 a month, which is €360 over a year.
- Cancel after 2 months on the monthly plan: you paid €60. On the yearly plan, you already paid €144.
The yearly plan is cheaper if you keep the tool all year. It is the expensive choice if you only wanted to try it.
How to check any price page in 10 seconds
- Find the Monthly / Yearly switch near the top and click Monthly. That is the real price for one month.
- Read the line under the big number. "Billed annually" or "billed yearly" means the big number is not what you pay today.
- Before you enter a card, look at the total on the checkout page. That is the only number that counts.
The best-known ones
123 of the 732 tools that show a monthly price (17%) only give that price for a year paid up front. These are the 24 most visited.
Questions
What does "billed annually" mean on a price page?
You pay for 12 months at once, on the day you sign up. The price shown per month is that yearly total divided by 12.
Is the monthly price on a pricing page the real price?
Only if the page says it is billed monthly. If it says billed annually or billed yearly, the monthly figure is an average, and you pay a full year up front.
How do I see the real monthly price?
Switch the toggle at the top of the price page from Yearly to Monthly. The number that appears is what you pay each month with no yearly commitment.
Where does this data come from?
From each company's own price page. We copy the sentence that states the price and whether it is billed yearly. If a page does not say, we count it as not stated.
How we checked
Every fact here comes from the company’s own page, with the sentence it is in. The facts checked for this guide show the day we read them. The tables come from our catalogue, which re-reads each price page on its own. When a page does not say something, we write that, and we never guess. How we check